Sunday, July 29, 2012

Poetry Parnassus : Poet and Professor Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Destiny by Margaret E. Walters

Earlier this month in London, The Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus Festival brought together poets from all the countries competing in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The world’s most dynamic poets, rappers, spoken word artists, singers and storytellers gathered for this monumental event that made history as the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK.

Here is Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, one of the festival's participating artists, reading from her work.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Wrinkles of a City; Havana / Murals by JR and José Parlá

* Source- WUM; An Online Journal for the Arts

During the XI Havana Biennale 2012 that took place last month, celebrated French artist JR and Cuban-American artist José Parlá collaborated to create the latest iteration of "The Wrinkles of the City," a huge mural installation that included 25 stunning large scale portraits of 25 senior citizens interlaced with palimpsestic calligraphic writings and paintings.

Parlá’s markings echo the distressed surfaces of the walls he inscribes, and offer commentary on the lives of Cuba’s elders. Both artists have left a lasting impression on the Cuban capital animating a city with such portraits in public who had only seen the likes of Che Guevara or Fidel Castro.

Celebrating Cuba's July 26th Movement- Viva la Revolución; The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Celebrating Cuba's July 26th Movement- Viva la Revolución

I am pairing this mural with Gil Scott Heron’s " The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

Here is Heron's delivering this signature poem:

Here is a link to learn more about the July 26th Movement: http://cubasolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/07/july-26th-movement-and-gains-of-cuban.html
* Photo- Andrew K. Johnston

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Color Me In Blue- Feminist Literary Journals-Submit

Submissions-Here's a link to :

1. So To Speak; A Feminist Journal of Language and Arthttp://sotospeakjournal.org/

2. CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women http://www.calyxpress.org/journal.html

3. Cliterature Journalhttp://www.cliteraturejournal.com/

Artwork- Ain’t I a Woman” blue by Ofunne Obiamiwe - artist, activist and educatorSee More

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Toni Morrison Gives New Voice to Desdemona

Here's a link to an interview in which Toni Morrison discusses this project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQhcI9is6XU&feature=youtu.be

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Meditations in Congo Square; Lamont Steptoe Reads from His Newest Poetry Collection

“Most poets are simply that. Sonia Sanchez and Lamont B. Steptoe answer to a higher calling. Prophecy! In Meditations… Steptoe is the Necromancer, translating the language of the dead to the living, whether they be the recently departed or Ante-Bellum spirits. While our age of obesity, self-gratification, and credit cards whistles past the graveyard, Lamont reads this burial ground like an Alufaa would read cowrie shells. Yes, there is the Philadelphia of Brotherly love, the old Quaker City that infuriated George Washington by offering refuge to fugitive slaves, but there is the other Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly death, whose atrocities are still being unearthed. Lamont B. Steptoe is the poet of this hidden Philadelphia. His brother Philadelphia poet of death, Edgar Allen Poe, would be proud.” Ishmael Reed

“There are places we dream, and places, often mass grave sits, that dream through us- if, like Lamont Steptoe, we are open to the restless spirits who abide there, denied voice in their time, and wishing now to catch history’s ear. “Turn up the silence loud,” he says, and the whispering dead are heard, as lost ancestors “call this place out of its name,” and Philly’s Washington Square Park becomes
Congo Square
, a restitution and a requiem.” Eleanor Wilner

Lamont B.Steptoe was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author and/or editor of fifteen poetry collections, the latest of which is Meditations in Congo Square, and publisher/founder of Whirlwind Press. He is the winner of an American Book Award and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Tuesday, July 24^th at 7:00 p.m.

The Moonstone Arts Center

110A S. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Phone: 215-735-9600, 215-735-9598
Email: info@moonstoneartscenter.org

Friday, July 20, 2012

In Consideration of Ramadan

Teaching Tolerance : http://www.tolerance.org/blog/consideration-ramadan

Link to Five Muslim American Poets: Part I- Literary discussion featuring readings by poets Raza Ali Hasan, Ibtisam Barakat, Fady Joudah, Kazim Ali, and Khaled Mattawa.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/2040

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Happy Birthday, Wole Soyinka !

Photo- Wole Soyinka and his Sister, Tinu, 1940

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. Wole Soyinka

Yesterday was Nigerian poet, playwright and political activist Wole Soyinka’s birthday. Mr. Soyinka was the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Here is a short interview with him by Skip Gates, which gives you a taste of his insight and demeanor. I hope you explore more of his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWjxjPQwBX0&feature=related

* Photo- Wole Soyinka and his Sister, Tinu, 1940

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

African Films To Be Shown at the Philadelphia African-American Museum

One of the most exiting events in West Africa happens every two years in Burkina Faso. It’s FESPACO ; the preeminent PanAfrican Film Festival. People locally and around world have been making and continue to make quality, relevant and life-affirming films. As I was sharing with a friend, we don’t have to limit ourselves to what is presented in mainstream movie theaters. Branch out, attend film festivals, and actively learn that there are other voices in this world other than “Hollywood’s”.

I’m thrilled that the Philadelphia African-American Museum will host the showing of several African produced films. Here is a link to learn the details: http://aampmuseum.org/demo_dev.php/page/july-august

Below is a link to photographs by Andrea Frazzeta of the 2011 FESPACO. This is an international event, but I like how she shows in these shots the local angle and involvement of everyday folk. Enjoy and go in 2013.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/01/magazine/look-african-film-festival.html?ref=magazine

June Jordan- A Poem About My Rights

Photo- June Jordan and Angela Davis

Happy Birthday June Jordan ! Here is a link to June reading Poem About My Rights which I first read more than 30 years ago and it still blows my mind ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUSTxhYu7-4&feature=related

Monday, July 9, 2012

Scribe Presents CABRALISTA This Friday 7/13 | Filmmaker in person -Philadelphia

Joel Bergner painting the revolutionary hero Amilcar Cabral on the anniversary of his assassination in Cape Verde.

Scribe Video Center Presents:

Screening of Cabralista with Director Valerio Lopes in person!

Friday, July 13, 7PM at Scribe Video Center, 4212 Chestnut St., 3rd Fl. Philadelphia, PA

Admission $5/ FREE for Reelblack Season 9 members.

On Friday July 13, 7PM, Scribe Video Center presents as part of its Storyville programming, the documentary Cabralista(2011, 52 min, French/Portuguese/Criol w/English subtitles) with director Valerio Lopes in person. Shot in Cape Verde, Portugal, Libya, Kenya, Guinea and Luxembourg, this is the first episode in an ambitious documentary trilogy inspired by the work of political activist Amilcar Cabral. In this feature-length documentary, Cabral's theories, life and work are considered and analyzed by young African students and intellectuals, as they seek alternative solutions to present-day cultural and social issues. The original music by filmmaker/musician Lopes creates a captivating mood and sets the tone for a very compelling climax.

Amilcar Cabral, a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean nationalist thinker and politician, led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau. The event is presented in partnership with Reelblack Inc. Friday July 13, 7PM, at Scribe Video Center, 4212 Chestnut St, 3rd Fl, Philadelphia, PA. $5, free for Scribe and Reelblack members.

About Director Valerio Lopes

Composer, storyteller, director and activist Valerio (Val) Lopes was born 1977 in Luxembourg from Cape-Verdean parents. He has been mixing music and video as a form of artistic expression since the early nineties. During the last few years he traveled all around the world, mainly in the Cape-Verdean community, where he had the opportunity to discover all the facets of this country of mixed origins with a strong diaspora.

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A 106-year-old from the Philippines is Vogue's oldest ever cover model

Still Dancing by Johnathan Labillois

Mr. Labillois' Artist Statement: I donated this to the Montreal Native Women's Shelter to raise awareness of missing and murdered Native women in Canada. I hoped sharing it with others would bring this issue to the minds of many people, and hope that many of our sisters, mothers, aunts or daughters will never be forgotten. The idea for the title came from my little sister who said, "Dancers dance for those who cannot, the sick, the elders, and those who are gone. It's like all those women are still dancing thru her." * 2020 Collective vision.us - Postcards for Political Action; Click image to learn more.

March 9, 2020 7:30 p.m./ Maira Kalman | The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Illustrated

Free Library of Phila./Central Branch-An illustrator, writer, artist, and designer, Maira Kalman is the author of a dozen children’s books, has designed fabric and accessories for Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Spade, created sets for stage productions, shown her work in nearly two dozen galleries, and, with her late husband, made accessories for the Museum of Modern Art. She has also designed several New Yorker covers, including the famed “Newyorkistan” absurdist map cover. Written by Gertrude Stein in the voice of her partner, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is one of literary history’s cheekiest and most loved biographies. In this new illustrated edition, Kalman brings to life the shimmering lights and intellectual luminaries of Paris in the 1920s and ’30s. Click image to learn more.

Wed, March 11, 2020 7:30 p.m.- James McBride Free Library/Central Branch

“Boisterous, highly entertaining,” and “altogether original” (Washington Post), James McBride is the author of the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown’s doomed crusade. His nonfiction books include the New York Times bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother and Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. His other fiction includes the novels Miracle at St. Anna and Song Yet Sung, and the short-story collection Five-Carat Soul. Also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, and saxophonist, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2016. Deacon King Kong is a novel about a very public shooting in a 1960s Brooklyn housing project. To learn more, click photo.

Wed, March 11, 2020 6:00 p.m. One Book, Many Voices Community Dinner

Blanche A. Nixon/Cobbs Creek Library Gather for a family-style dinner of dishes from the Americas. Hear thoughts from the contributing chefs on Indigenous food traditions, as participants put text on the table and discuss passages from There There by Tommy Orange. Everyone will get to know their neighbors during this special evening, and explore together what identity and community-building mean in Lenapehoking past, present, and future. Join the party for a family-style dinner with dishes from across the Americas, in partnership with One Book, One Philadelphia. Participating restaurants include: El Merkury, Poi Dog Philly, South Philly Barbacoa and Chef Chris Paul. Registration for this FREE event is encouraged but not required; seating is first-come, first-served. Click image for more information.

Curtis Institute of Music Student Recitals-Mon., Wed., & Thu/Free

The Student Recital Series provides a platform for exceptional young musicians—and more than 100 free opportunities for audiences to indulge in a season-long showcase of artistry. Since Curtis was founded in 1924, some of history’s most important musicians have appeared on the stage of Field Concert Hall, and today the Student Recital Series continues this celebrated legacy. Students perform solo and chamber works on most Mondays at 6 p.m., and Wednesday and Friday evenings at 8 p.m. Additional dates and times are added throughout the year. Student Recitals are free and open to the public. Seating is general admission and first-come, first-served. Most recitals are about two hours long, with one intermission. Click image to learn more.

U-M anthropologist uses toe tags to highlight crisis at US-Mexico border

"Hostile Terrain 94", by anthropologist Jason De Leon, confronts viewers with a giant map of Arizona. The map is populated with 3,000 toe tags — cards used in morgues to identify the dead. Each toe tag represents a person who died attempting to cross the border through the Sonoran desert. As part of the exhibition, the viewer is invited to fill out the toe tags by hand, listing the person's corresponding name, date, location of death and condition of the body. Click image to read more of this article and to learn more about this project.

ReimaginedFLP: Free Library Opened Reimagined Spaces in the Parkway Central Library!

The Robert and Eileen Kennedy Heim Center for Cultural and Civic Engagement First Floor | 7,200 square feet An active gathering space for diverse programs and civic engagement. Marie and Joseph Field Teen Center Ground Floor | 4,000 square feet Special programming and a gaming area–exclusively for teens. Business Resource and Innovation Center Ground Floor | 8,200 square feet A new hub for Philadelphia's entrepreneurs, inventors, nonprofits, and job seekers./ Click image to learn more.

Open Archive: The Poetics of Anti-Slavery Protest- New York

Join Michelle Commander, associate director and curator of the Lapidus Center, who will explore archive material capturing the use of poetry and related arts in anti-slavery efforts in the Atlantic World. The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center is the only facility of its kind based in a public research library. The initial collection included 400 rare items of printed material — books and documents continue to be added to the collection — making the Schomburg Center home to one of the world’s premier collections of slavery material. The Center's mission is to generate and disseminate scholarly knowledge on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery pertaining to the Atlantic World. Lapidus Center engages the public with a variety of programs, an annual nonfiction prize, exhibitions, and conferences./ Click image to learn more.

Raquel Salas Rivera

Written in response the PROMESA bill (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) bill, lo terciario/the tertiary offers a decolonial queer critique and reconsideration of Marx. The book’s titles come from Pedro Scaron’s, El Capital, the 1976 translation of Karl Marx’s classic. Published by Siglo Veintiuno Editores, this translation was commonly used by the Puerto Rican left as part of political formation programs. Lo terciario/the tertiary places this text in relation to the Puerto Rican debt crisis, forcing readers to reconsider old questions when facing colonialism’s newest horrors-Colette Arrand, author of Hold Me Gorilla Monsoon

Photos Of 1908 Japan, Before Wars And Devastation

Back in 1908, a German photographer Arnold Genthe (1869-1942) spent six months in Japan, documenting the everyday life of Japanese during the Meiji period. Genthe was known for his photo series, documenting San Francisco’s Chinatown. After his death, the Library of Congress acquired approximately 20,000 never before seen photographs from his studio, and buried in the collection were these rare photos from 1908 Japan, during the Meiji period. In these photos, you’ll see an almost idyllic everyday life that contrasts sharply with the soon-to-come destruction, brought by the wars. Click on image to learn more.

20 Amazing Writing Residencies You Should Apply for This Year

Leeway Foundation

The Leeway Foundation's grantmaking programs honor women and trans* artists for their ability to create social change through their artistic and cultural work. The Art and Change Grants and the Leeway Transformation Awards fund women and trans artists (including those identifying as transgender, transsexual, and/or genderqueer) living in the Delaware Valley region of Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, who engage in art and social change work and have financial need. To learn more, click image.

Hedgebrook; Women Authoring Change

Hedgebrook is a global community of women writers and people who seek extraordinary books, poetry, plays, films and music by women. A literary nonprofit, its mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape culture now and for generations to come. Hedgebrook offers writing residencies, master classes and salons at its 25-year-old retreat on Whidbey Island, and public programs that connect writers with readers and audiences around the world. Click image to learn more.

Rethinking Schools

Coming in early 2015 Rethinking Sexism, Gender, & Sexuality, a new book from Rethinking Schools How do you respond when a child asks, “Can a girl turn into a boy?” in the middle of circle time? What if your daughter brings home schoolbooks with sexist, racist stories? What does “queering the curriculum” really mean? What does it look like? What if parents complain? Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality is filled with insightful, inspiring articles on these and dozens of other critical topics. Chapters include: creating safe and nurturing classrooms, coming out at school as a teacher or student, integrating feminist and LGBTQ content into curriculum, moving beyond the classroom to school and community teacher education Join our campaign to publish the book we wish our own teachers—and our children's teachers—had well-thumbed copies of in their classrooms.

The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship

The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship was created in 2013 to nurture and sustain a heritage as old as the Library itself – deepening French-American understanding. The Visiting Fellowship offer writers and researchers an opportunity to pursue a creative project in Paris for a month or longer while participating actively in the life of the American Library. The project may be a book (fiction or non-fiction), long-form journalism, film or music. The Fellowship award, a stipend of $5,000 is intended to cover travel and housing costs for the Visiting Fellow. He or she will be expected to present the work-in-progress to the public in a weekday evening talk at the Library, and to conduct one or two workshops for Library members on a subject of common interest. Click Image to learn more..

Ride a train across country and write a book. Welcome to the Amtrak Writer's Residency:

What began as a line in Alexander Chee's interview in PEN Ten and was fueled by Twitter, is now an official Amtrak program. As many of you may know by now, our test-run for Amtrak Residency was done by Manhattan-based writer Jessica Gross, whose piece, Writing The Lakeshore Limited was published in February by The Paris Review. What followed was overwhelming support on Twitter and in the media with #AmtrakResidency being featured in The Wire, The New Yorker, and Huffington Post among others. Today we are happy to announce that #AmtrakResidency will allow for up to 24 writers to take long-distance trains to work on their projects. Each writer's round-trip journey will include accommodations on board a sleeper car equipped with a bed, a desk and outlets. We hope this experience will inspire creativity and most importantly fuel your sense of adventure! Are you excited about #AmtrakResidency? Want to learn more and apply? Head over to our official entry form and good luck! Click image.

Where My Birthmark Dances is now available on Amazon

What's being said about Where My Birthmark Dances ?

The Ancient Romans used to call a person's creative spirit her "genius," and recognized the labor of setting it free as one of love and sacrifice. Octavia McBride-Ahebee's latest collection is just such a labor. Her poems depict human longing, love and dignity in the context of global inequality with fierce, uncompromising grace. As her characters speak, she creates indelible sensory images of loveliness and affection, profound misery and anger, letting each co-exist on the page. The resulting complexity of tone makes space for nuanced and compelling human voices that might otherwise be categorized as "victims" or "villains" of oppression. It takes the full use of genius to notice and capture these contradictions, and a deep social conscience to care so passionately about writing them down. This collection is one of McBride-Ahebee's "bighearted magnolia trees," its trunk scarred by the fire of sacrifice, its blossoms and branches so beautiful you don't want to leave their shade.

-Lillian Dunn, Editor of Apiary Literary Journal

Octavia McBride-Ahebee

Words without Borders; The Home of International Literature

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Poetry Parnassus : Poet and Professor Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Wrinkles of a City; Havana / Murals by JR and José Parlá

Celebrating Cuba's July 26th Movement- Viva la Revolución; The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Color Me In Blue- Feminist Literary Journals-Submit

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Toni Morrison Gives New Voice to Desdemona

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Meditations in Congo Square; Lamont Steptoe Reads from His Newest Poetry Collection

Friday, July 20, 2012

In Consideration of Ramadan

In Consideration of Ramadan

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Happy Birthday, Wole Soyinka !

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

African Films To Be Shown at the Philadelphia African-American Museum

June Jordan- A Poem About My Rights

Monday, July 9, 2012

Scribe Presents CABRALISTA This Friday 7/13 | Filmmaker in person -Philadelphia

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